Going The Distance

Having broken through to the highest echelons of Asian Television, Lawrence Wong is now working on building his brand—literally. He is starting with skincare, but has his sights set on a full lifestyle empire.

- Jeffrey Yan

Lawrence Wong has been on the up for the past few years and now, he is branching out. Stratospheric as his success might seem today, it did not come overnight. The actor has been a steady presence in the local entertainment industry for over a decade; first with a breakthrough role in the 2010 telemovie The Promise (for which he nabbed his first Star Awards nomination), and then with supporting roles on hit TV dramas such as 118 and Three Wishes. But it took a gamble on his career and leaving the country for the Malaysian-born actor to finally hit the big time. Wong left Singapore for China in 2016, and in that much more competitive and crowded field, he managed to nab a role in the imperial drama Story of Yanxi Palace.

The rest, as the saying goes, is history. The show was one of China’s biggest modern television successes, streamed billions of times around the world; Wong’s star has been on the rise since. After Yanxi Palace, he returned to Singapore to take on the lead role in My One in a Million before headlining the Chinese production Girlfriend.

Wong will next be seen in this year’s The Ferryman: Legends of Nanyang, for which he spent a chunk of last year filming in his home state of Johor. The pandemic had scuttled his plans to return to China after the last Chinese New Year to resume work, so he spent most of the past year here in Singapore and Malaysia. While others baked, cooked and crafted up a storm, Wong spent all that pandemic-enforced free time on something bigger—developing and realising an idea that has been brewing in his head for years: A botanical skincare line. The results were recently unveiled, the first product being the Do-It-All mask under his newly launched Grail brand. We talk to Wong about a difficult year, his journey so far and his new venture.